Trump’s List for Cabinet Positions is Shortening.

“Just two weeks ago, President-elect Donald Trump appeared poised to assemble a Cabinet as unconventional as he is, drawing heavily from a band of quirky loyalists that included several from the fringes of the Republican Party.

But as he moves rapidly toward assembling his roster of top advisers, Trump instead is pulling together a more orthodox GOP team than many expected, including a defense secretary nominee, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who has received solid marks from the party establishment ahead of his formal unveiling Monday.

The emerging Cabinet has gone a long way toward mollifying some of Trump’s Republican critics, and several of the picks — including the wife of the Senate majority leader as transportation secretary — are tailor-made to encourage cooperation between the administration and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill. The incoming team is preparing not only to implement longtime Republican goals — such as repealing the Affordable Care Act and cutting taxes — but also to push for Trump’s iconoclastic and controversial campaign promises on issues such as a border wall and trade.

But the group and the president-elect also hold conflicting views over key issues including Iran policy, Medicare and immigration, raising the risk of infighting and fractiousness both within the administration and with Congress.

Several of Trump’s early personnel picks were “more directly in your face, while others that have come forward since then are decidedly less so,” said Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. “At this point, I would say the Republican establishment that was so attacked by Trump during the campaign is doing pretty well in shaping his administration.”